Warrington Wolves u19s 54 Salford Red Devils u19s 12

WARRINGTON Wolves maintained their four-point lead in the under 19s Academy League after turning on the style to comprehensively defeat Salford Red Devils on Saturday at Crosfields ARLFC.

The game was very even for the opening quarter with both sides squandering opportunities, but a purple patch of four tries in 10 minutes from Wolves really turned the screw and enabled them to pull clear and take control.

Wolves opened the scoring in the sixth minute when a lovely pass from stand off Declan Patton sent centre Toby King away and he slipped the ball to winger Declan Kay, who raced 30 metres to score wide out on the left.

A mistake from the kick off gave Salford a scrum and they calmly played through the set until scrum half Josh Wood found prop forward Matty Gee at speed on the last tackle and he crashed over at the side of the posts.

Full back Tyler Whittaker converted to give his side a two-point lead.

Warrington regained the advantage on 24 minutes when a penalty allowed them to move deep into the Red Devils half.

After strong drives from prop forward George King and substitute Daniel Murray got them close to the Salford line, hooker Ryan Maneely scampered over from dummy half to score on the left.

Patton converted and then straight from the restart Wolves were awarded a penalty. From the tap great hands across the line saw full back Jack Johnson find T King, who brushed off four defenders on a marauding run to score on the left. Patton added the conversion.

Yet another penalty on the half hour put Wolves deep inside the Salford half again and after some fine work on the right the ball reached Patton, who danced his way through to score at the left of the posts.

He converted himself and almost immediately a lovely long ball from Patton found T King, who in turn sent Kay away down the wing and his clever kick ahead saw Johnson react quickest to touch down wide on the left.

Patton added the conversion to make the half time score 28-6.

One minute into the second half and Wolves were over once again when a high kick on the last tackle by Patton was knocked back superbly by T King into the gleeful arms of Kay, who scored in the left corner.

Eight minutes later two great carries in the same set by Murray put Wolves in a great position and Patton put substitute Daniel Hirst away.

He then gave a lovely pass back to Patton who scored between the posts to give himself the simplest of conversions.

Great runs by substitute Robert Holroyd and Murray punctured huge holes in the Salford defence and an astute grubber kick by scrum half Louis Jouffret saw winger Ben Stansfield react quickest to touchdown in the right corner.

Patton landed a fine conversion, but on the hour Red Devils made their way deep into the Wolves half and on the last tackle Whittaker shaped to kick the ball, but he decided to run it and he caught the Wolves defence napping as he shot through a gap to score.

He converted himself to make the score 44-12 to the Wolves.

Eleven minutes later Wolves’ French star Jouffret spotted a gap in the Salford defence and shot through it to score between the posts.

He took over the goalkicking duties to land the conversion and a minute from time a superb break by Hirst split the Red Devils defence and a quick play the ball saw Jouffret find second row James Jones, who did superbly well to keep the ball alive and find centre Jake Simm.

Simm went over in the corner for a deserved debut try to complete a very professional 54-12 victory.

Wolves: Jack Johnson; Ben Stansfield, Jake Simm, Toby King, Declan Kay; Declan Patton, Louis Jouffret; Andy Philbin, Ryan Maneely, George King, James Jones, Sam Wilde, Connor Adams. Subs: Robert Holroyd, Morgan Nicholas, Daniel Murray, Daniel Hirst.